Seeing The Truth (Siobhan)

[Eyrecae Alzari]

(Continued from Tabaqui Dominion)
[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]



The Levantine base camp on Tabaqui was a fairly ramshackle affair at that moment. The shelters and landing ships formed something of a cordon, whilst activity continued within.

Eyrecae Alzari stumbled into the camp, found a cargo ship and almost fell in, locking the door behind her. Pulling on her helmet she removed it.
Her face was marred by the horrible wound where the primitive arrow had pierced. Reaching up, she removed a splinter of wood and dropped it to the deck. Looking at the back of her burnished helmet she saw as the blood on her face started to turn dark and finally to dust. Then, before her…eye…the flesh began to change, her form regrowing. In a few minutes of terrific pain her eye was whole again. She closed her eyes and opened them, normal sight returning.

“They will pay. Every one of these cowering, craven fools! I will make them pay for their defiance, all of them! The women, the children, I will crush them!” she declared. She felt joy pulse through her. She could see herself purging the city with hammer, bolter, blade and fist until they all lay dead. The joy of it filled her, and she could almost feel the hammer connecting with flesh and bone, see the gore rise from the sweep of her irresistible weapon.
She turned to leave, intent on rejoining the slaughter of the hapless primitives…and stopped.

A figure stood there, dressed in white robes, faintly transparent. An Eldorai with long dark hair.

“Mother?” Eyrecae asked, confused. She had not seen her mother for…well…25,000 years. But even in the time she could remember, her memory was vague. She knew who it was who stood there. The first Eldorai, their ‘creator’, none other than Ashira herself, now worshipped as a Goddess. Her mother…a Goddess.
“Are you seriously considering that?” Ashira asked sternly.
The harshness of the words made Eyrecae bridle. “They opposed me, so they must be destroyed! There can be no opposition, all my enemies will perish!”
“And what then? Siobhan would kill you, the Levantines would kick your friends out, maybe even put them on trial.”
“What of it?! Siobhan has done far worse. She should be congratulating me for following her example! As for the space hippies, well, they need to learn that war is not a sit-in around the fire smoking the peace pipe. War is blood and death, and the sooner they realise this the sooner people might take them seriously!”
“Do you listen to yourself? You have become a psychopath, a murderous force for evil.”
“I don’t have to listen to you! I’ve seen these visions before, and I’m not falling for them.” She made to leave.
“He’s still controlling you, you know,” Ashira said.
Eyrecae turned angrily. “No one’s controlling me. I am my own woman! And you’re no goddess, you’re just a lab rat, same as me, so don’t take the superior tone with me!”
Ashira’s eyes narrowed. “I may not be a Goddess, but I still have power, even now. Look!”

There was a bright flash, and Eyrecae shielded her eyes. When she recovered, Ashira was gone.
Snorting with derision, Eyrecae reached for the controls of the door, and stopped. There was something…wrong.
The door had a bright light above it, and her shadow…her shadow was not her! It was alien, vaguely cone-headed, with protruding eyes and thick limbs. It was a Rakata.
Eyrecae stepped back in shock, the shadow followed her of course.
“No…no this is a trick.” But it wasn’t. Now she knew to be suspicious, she heard the slight echo in her tone. She felt…something else in her mind.
“No, you’re dead! You died all that time ago. You don’t control me!” Eyrecae said almost hysterically.
“You are my legacy, Dark Star. You have done great things so far, but you will be so much more when you overcome your final scruples, once you become the weapon I made you to be. Then, my return will be assured and the Infinite Empire will rise once more!” The voice came from her own mouth! Eyrecae fought to regain control.
“No. No, sod you. I am not going to be part of this.”
“But you are. Think of all those our victories together. You owe everything to me! Without me, you would have died thousands of years ago. Because of me you live! You are strong! Together we will conquer!”
“I don’t want to. I’m my own woman. I’m Eyrecae Alzari, not your puppet.”
“I gave you the chance to aid me willingly, but you have chosen defiance, and you must be punished!”
Agony seared through Eyrecae, and she fell to the floor, unable to scream. Instead her mouth laughed a guttural and piercing laugh. She could feel her own body rebelling against her as Raik’aro, her creator, took control.

Desperately, Eyrecae fought to regain control. Her enormous strength was useless as the battle was mental rather than physical.
Her resistance was breaking, and she lay spasming on the floor, her mouth opened now in silent scream.
A shimmering light appeared before her. Her mother…Ashira. With her last strength she reached out her hand desperately to her mother.
“It’s too late, she is mine,” Eyrecae’s mouth said, though she fought to bite the words back.
“Eyrecae, I love you, I always did. I gave you to him because I had no choice. I’m sorry for what I did. All I can do if give you the second chance I never had.”
Ashira reached out and touched Eyrecae’s brow before she could be pulled away. “Tell Chesna I love her….”

If Eyrecae had been in pain before, now the torment was excruciating. It felt as though every part of her was being torn apart with red-hot hooks. She screamed tearing off her armour and writhing on the floor until at the last the pain began to subside, and she fell senseless to the deck.

Her tumult had reached the outside, even through the thick metal of the container, but the door was sealed.
A message was sent to [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] that something was very wrong….

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Eyrecae Alzari"]


This one does not really have any clue about when this takes place in relation to the efforts of the Levantine Sanctum to take over the planet Tabaqui because even space hippies must induldge in colonialist expansion. But suffice to say Siobhan had been seeing to Firemane operations in the town, which was presumably being cleared of scavengers and rebuilt. Firemane had taken plenty of prisoners and they were being treated fairly but firmly. If you could everyone who surrendered, no one would surrender. Admittedly the primitives were no real threat and so could in theory just mow them down, but that was neither classy nor good on the public relations front. Especially if you were operating in space hippie land. So, yes, murdering unarmed women and children for the hell of it was bound to earn you summary field execution.


Fortunately none of that had happened and it was then that Siobhan received a comm message that something was...terribly wrong with Eyrecae. Designating some minion to finish up her work she quickly took the sky and raced through the air back to base camp where she knew Eyrecae had returned to in order to heal after her eye had been lost to an arrow. It was with no small amount of trepidation that she surged through the air.


Truth be told, Siobhan did like Eyrecae but half the time even she found herself questioning whether the supersoldier, no matter how great her combat skills were, was worth the time and effort. Of course, to an extent Siobhan could not judge given how brutal and volatile she was, but often enough she got the impression at some point the Eldorai would need sense knocked into her if she was supposed to fit in.



Still, she was her friend, so she would help, if possible. And so Siobhan finally reached the camp and dropped down from the sky, landing upon the ground. Some guards were already assembled but she waved them off, though they stayed in position and were obviously heavily armed, just in case.



"She did not respond when we knocked, ma'am. We heard voices coming from the ship. She sounded like she was...possessed. Ranting about how she would slaughter the town and restore an Infinite Empire," the Lieutenant in charge spoke after she had landed.


Siobhan looked troubled then her eyes narrowed. Given all the crazy things that had happened in her life and all the possession cases she had experienced herself, she had an idea what might have happened. Megalomaniacal evil overlords like Eyrecae's creator seemed just as unwilling to finally die as Shadow had been. "I'm going in. Be right behind me and keep your bolters ready,"
she ordered, gripping her own immensely powerful shatterboltgun, which was pretty much a portable cannon and probably the height in pointless brutality. "If she attacks, don't hold back," she added very grimly.


The door to the cargo ship was locked but said lock was easily broken when Siobhan exerted her telekinetic will to simply force the door to be pulled open, and so Mistress Earthshaker stepped inside, with the bolter-armed guards remaining at the ready and ready to bombard the place if needed. Each of them also carried a couple thermal detonators. Given the possible situation that did not count as overkill.

 

[Eyrecae Alzari]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
There was no resistance or attack when Siobhan entered the room. Instead Eyrecae lay on the floor prostrate, her helmet and gauntlets discarded along with her hammer and bolter.

The soldiers were genre savvy like their leader, and apparently unconscious threats could become conscious very quickly. In the tense situation bolters were levelled, the laser pointers aimed at the white haired woman’s head and hands, the unprotected areas.

Nothing happened except that Eyrecae started to moan softly, eventually waking up and trying feebly to sit up.

She caught sight of Siobhan and for a moment just stared at her. “I…saw him. Siobhan…I…saw him. And my mother…I saw Ashira…” she said in Eldarai.

It was probably just as well there were only human Firemane people in the room.

She slumped back. “Feels…wrong. Can’t…I…”

And then she was out cold.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Eyrecae Alzari"]


The soldiers seemed uncertain of what to make of this, though they kept their bolters levelled at Eyrecae's weak spots. Given how bizarre the situation was they could not be faulted and while they obviously did not know about the primeval Eldorai's origins, they had seen enough of what she was capable of.


One soldier who seemed to have medic training approached her and bent down, checkung her pulse. "Steady, but she's unconscious, ma'am," he reported as he got up.


Siobhan nodded, for she could see that for herself well enough. She had learned Eldarai by now and thus had understood what Eyrecae said. "Take her back to our ship and put her in detention. Till we figure out what's affecting her she's not to leave. She's to be put under constant guard." What am I gonna do with you, she thought to herself but then plain and simply lifted the woman up with a telekinetic grip.


In the light of the fact that they did not really know in what state Eyrecae might wake up, she would be taken off the planet and sent back to Dahomey. In the event that she woke up in a volatile and aggressive state it was probably for the best if it happened on their own turf where the problem could be more easily contained than in Levantine space. It was probably for the best that the Order of the Torch had gone high tech.

 

[Eyrecae Alzari]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

It was well that the Order of the Torch was used to securing difficult and precious cargos, and had previous experience with Eyrecae.

Thus, in orbit, on board the Ardarvia, Eyrecae was restrained inside a floating Force cage like the one used on Obi Wan Kenobi on Geonosis so long before.

Whilst the Dominion had continued below Eyrecae had been unconscious, and only shortly before Siobhan had returned triumphant had she awoken.

As Siobhan entered Eyrecae looked tiredly at her. “No play today Sio…” she drawled sleepily.

There was something almost disconcerting about seeing the white haired battering ram being so feeble.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Eyrecae Alzari"]


Siobhan did not like it one bit. She did not like distrusting her friend or seeing her so feeble. However, when dealing with someone as powerful as Eyrecae caution was advised, hence the force cage and she was obviously not wearing her phrik armour anymore.


Outside there were Firemane guards. They were just standing sentinel and did not have their guns levelled at Eyrecae, but they were clearly watching. For her part Siobhan was still wearing her armour and had a bolt pistol strapped to her hip, but then she had presumably just come from the battlefield.


"You crashed out. What is the last thing you remember?" Siobhan asked softly but firmly.

 

[Eyrecae Alzari]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
Eyrecae, with difficulty, looked around, saw no Eldorai in the room or looking in at her, and so spoke in that language again.
“Mother came to me, told me that Raik’aro was still controlling me. He was…he was. I fought him and he hurt me. He’s gone now. I feel…different now. Different. Mother helped me. She said…give regards…Chesna.”
She trailed off, almost dozing as she hung suspended.
Roused to wakefulness she looked at Siobhan. “I was going to kill them. The rage filled me, I wanted to kill all the men, women, children. He was making me. I don’t…that’s not right. Mother was right. I feel calm now…calm…tired….”
She started to drift off again, as if unable to stay awake.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Eyrecae Alzari"]


And if you had I would've killed you, Siobhan thought to herself, her jaw tightening at the revelation. "I should've expected he'd try to mind frack you like that, given what an evil jackarse he was," she spoke. It was very good that Raik'airo was truly dead, otherwise she would torture him to death. Probably tear his spine out. "You're free of him now. Rest, dear. I'll be there when you wake up."


She activated her comm to radio her minions. "Remove Alzari from her cage put her in the medbay." None of the guards or nurses tending to her would be Eldorai.

 

[Eyrecae Alzari]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
The guards came forward and deactivated the security field. In theory they should have had time to catch her and gently lower her, but one of them slipped and Eyrecae tumbled to the deck. She stuck out her hand to break her fall and ended up sprawled on the floor.
"Well...that was undignified," she muttered, sitting up.

As she got up she gazed at her hand, puzzled. As she'd come down she'd cut her hand slightly. A drop of blood appeared and hovered in the broken skin. She looked at it, brows knitted.

It wasn't healing.

Normally it'd just have vanished now, the blood turning to dust and her flesh mending. But...nothing.

"He's robbed me," she whispered. "He's made me mortal...my punishment."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Eyrecae Alzari"]


Siobhan had already been turning to leave when she heard Eyrecae spoke and turned around to face her. It was then that she beheld the surprising sight. For anyone else not having their skin heal after drawing blood would have been normal. For anyone except Eyrecae Alzari. Whatever else might be said about her, she was by no means an ordinary elf.


"I'll take over from here. Return to your duties," she spoke to the guards and waved them away. Probably best to talk with them around. Once they had walked out she headed over to Eyrecae, helping the Eldorai stand up if she needed. She gently wiped the blood away and applied a plaster to cover and bandage the wound. It was nothing serious and the flesh should be as good as new in a few days, but nothing was ordinary about the situation. Whatever she had faced in battle, Eyrecae had always been able to rely on the fact that she would heal and be as good as new in time.


Raik'airo sick experiments had made her immortal. Of course, an Eldorai still had a long life span. But it was a pertinent question what else she might have lost. If the Rakatan had this power even as as a noncorporeal being, Siobhan doubted he would have stopped at making her mortal again and not taken her superior strength away as well. "He made you mortal because you wanted to be more than his meat puppet? Eyrecae, I'm sorry," she spoke in Eldarai so that there was no risk of her minions listening in.


"Let's get you out of here and into the medbay. We'll look into this. You need rest."

 

[Eyrecae Alzari]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

Eyrecae leaned drunkenly on Siobhan as she was helped away to a bed. When she was helped onto it she was almost instantly asleep.
Before she did sleep though she managed to say one sentence.
“I have seen the truth, Siobhan.” Gnomic comment delivered, she fell deeply asleep.

None of the doctors on board knew Eyrecae’s special secrets, so them examining her might be counterproductive. However, Siobhan could turn to her old friend Doctor Osway, who did know a lot about the Kaeshana gang’s secrets. When the symptoms were relayed over the holocom the green Twi’lek frowned.

“I suspect, Siobhan, that the nanites have been made dormant by some means. If you were able to reactivate them you would ‘switch her back on’, but that’s not really my field of expertise. But is that what you want? There’s no guarantee that turning them back on won’t also recreate the instructions from her creator too.”

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Eyrecae Alzari"]


And if that happened Siobhan would have to kill her. In such an eventuality she would not hesitate.


"I know. I'd be a massive hypocrite if I didn't try to help her though." Well, as a matter of fact Siobhan was a massive hypocrite. But it was very doubtful that she would take it well if she was 'reduced to normalcy'. Somehow she had the impression that 'switching Eyrecae back on' would require a long tedious quest of self-discovery, facing inner demons and battling plagiaristic monsters. Why? Because it was always like that and had been this way when she lost her powers.


"I know it's not your field of expertise, but I'd appreciate any insight you can offer. I'll be my wife to fill her in." Well, she would be calling Tegaea and Chesna.

 

[Eyrecae Alzari]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
Well of course it has to involve a quest! How much of a thread would it be if Eyrecae woke up immortal again the next morning?! Lessons would not be learned, important moral conundrums would not have been faced etc etc.

"Hmm, as I say, not really my field. I can put you in touch with a researcher into nanotechnology if you'd like," Doctor Osway said. Her lekku twitched slightly in some hidden meaning. "He is rather skilled in his field," she said, almost wistfully. Then she was back to the present, and a message beeped through on Siobhan's commlink with the name, comm code and details of a Doctor Titus Luca.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Eyrecae Alzari"]


Considering the fact that Siobhan did not learn anything from her quest, this writer is not too optimistic. Why did Firemane still keep her around? Oh, wait, they needed her to kill things. Except when they complained about when she got injured that despite her lack of utility for anything else except certain bedroom activities.


Then again, maybe Eyrecae would be smarter.


In any case Siobhan gave Osway a nod. "Thank you, Doctor. I'll give him a call," she said gratefully, though she wondered just how much the Twi'lek knew that Luca fellow. With that she cut the connection and sent a brief message to Tegaea and Chesna first.

 

[Eyrecae Alzari]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
Tegaea had received the message, and was concerned, sent a message in reply.
“Siobhan, received your message. Did you need any additional help? I’ve checked up on Doctor Luca, and he seems legitimate, but I can search for a second opinion if you need.
Love you, Tegs.”

Meanwhile Siobhan’s underlings had talked with the Doctor’s underlings to arrange a holocall at a specified time…and that time was fast approaching.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Eyrecae Alzari"]


"Don't need backup yet. Somehow I suspect that we'll have to go on a long-arse quest to get her powers back. Could use support there if it comes to that. What's our cover story for Eyrecae when I contact the doctor and he looks into the problem? Love you too, Sio."


After all, Firemane was not a company known for creating nanites of the type that had turned Eyrecae into a supersoldier! As a matter of fact no known medical company had them publicly available. So saying that they had given her a super serum would probably not work. Of course, doctors were sworn to confidentiality and all that, but it still raised questions. Trust was good, control was better.

 

[Eyrecae Alzari]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
Tegaea’s reply was not long in coming.
Sio, blame the Sith. Say she was an attempted special weapons project from the Sith Empire, and that we rescued her. Basically swap ‘Rakata’ for ‘Sith. No one’s going to argue with a crazy Sith tech project. Love, Tegs.

When the time came, Doctor Luca appeared on screen. He seemed an athletic sort, attractive to those interested, and calm and confident.

“Lady Kerrigan, a pleasure. Doctor Titus Luca at your service. Doctor Osway has benefited greatly from your patronage. She mentioned you were having a problem with nanotechnology, and that I might be able to assist. Please, tell me the situation, and I’ll see what I can do.”

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

8[member="Eyrecae Alzari"]


"Works. Almost all bad things are their fault. Y'know we should think about making that our cover story if we go public with her. Plenty of troops see her in action, there's bound to be talk, and paparazzi love to follow us around. Can make a big sappy story about how she has broken free of the control of vile Dashdae Sciians human monkeighs and uses her powers for good in the name of Kaeshana. Love, Sio."


When you thought about it, the cover story was not that bad! Everyone knew that Sith performed all sorts of sick experiments and there was nothing more pleasing to the Eldorai than hearing about human monkeighs and slavers getting thrashed.


"Thank you for making time for me at such short notice. I imagine you understand the absolute need for confidentiality on this matter, but the nanotechnology problem is with one of our soldiers, an Eldorai called Alzari. Our knowledge of the exact technology is limited, but she was a slave and attempted special weapons project by the Sith Empire during its closing days. We rescued her from a lab when the Empire fell. The nanites gave her heightened strength and regenerative capabilities, but after a minor skirmish the nanites suddenly became dormant."

 

[Eyrecae Alzari]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

Doctor Luca frowned, nodding as she spoke. When she finished he smiled.
“it is my pleasure, Countess. Ah, the Sith…they get everywhere, like maggots,” he said, the last word said with a good deal of venom. He didn’t like Sith, seemingly. A wise policy.
“I have seen several such research projects, mainly using the Dark Side, or Vong forming more recently. Nanotechnology is new. However, I’d like to see the subject if I may, examine her even. Is that possible? I am based on Corellia, but I can come to you if you’re able to provide me transport.”

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Eyrecae Alzari"]


Siobhan gave Doctor Luca a nod. Needless to say she preferred Eyrecae being examined on Firemane's own turf. "I'd appreciate you coming, Doctor. I'm on the Firemane command ship and present so we can pick you up. I'll transmit our estimated time of arrival and the landing pad we'll be sending a shuttle to." Within a few moments the doctor should have the required information.


"You'll receive a call once we've landed and pickup will be arranged. Until then, thank you for your time and assistance," she finished and then cut the connection.